Kit's Wilderness

Kit's Wilderness is David Almond's second novel, published in 2000 by Delacorte Press. It won the 2001 Michael L. Printz Award from the American Library Association,^[1] the Smarties Award Silver Medal, was Highly Commended for the Carnegie Medal, and was shortlisted for the Guardian Award.

The fictional town where the novel is set is closely based on towns in the former coal-mining area of Tyne and Wear, where the author grew up.^[2]

Plot summary

Thirteen-year-old Kit and his family have moved back to Stoneygate to be with his grandfather who is succumbing to Alzheimer’s Disease. Kit's grandfather, an ex-miner, tells him about the town's coal-mining days and the hardships and disasters that were part of his youth. Kit meets Allie Keenan, full of energy and life, but also shadowy John Askew and the dangerous 'game' he plays – a game called Death. Through playing the game, Kit comes to see the lost children of the mines and begins to connect his grandfather’s fading memories to his, his friends’ and Stoneygate’s history.^[3]

References